Farah Available for Edinburgh XC

Double-double Olympic champion Mo Farah has put himself forward for selection to the Great Britain team in the upcoming Great Edinburgh International XCountry on 7 January 2017. Farah finished second to Garrett Heath at the 2016 event, kicking off a year in which he successfully defended his 10,000m and 5,000m titles at the Rio Olympics, and won his third Great North Run in a row.

The reigning world champion over 10,000m and 5,000m intends to warm up for London 2017 with an appearance in Edinburgh’s Holyrood Park, with British Athletics finalising their team after the European Cross Country Championships in Chia on 11 December.

The 33-year-old said: “Cross country events offer a perfect opportunity for me to measure my fitness and see how my training is going ahead of the 2017 track season. I have made myself available for selection for the British team for this event.

“I placed second in this race last year and hope to go one better in 2017.”

The Great Edinburgh International XCountry consists of four separate events and pits the best of Team GB& NI against Europe and the USA.

Athletes compete across four races; the junior men’s 6km, the junior women’s 4km, senior men’s 8km and senior women’s 6km, with the overall winning team determined by the best aggregate finishing positions of the six best placed athletes in the senior category, as well as the four best placed athletes in the junior races.

The event will also see the return of the innovative International Mixed Relay event in which national teams of four (two men and two women) compete in a 4x1k challenge for the Stewart Cup.

The Great Edinburgh International XCountry will be televised live on BBC One from 13:15 and is part of a new year festival for runners of all abilities held in Holyrood Park, next to the Scottish Parliament.

The Great Winter Run, held on a scenic 5km course that loops around Arthur's Seat, provides the public with an opportunity to dust off the new year cobwebs before watching the world's best test themselves in the international cross country races.